Safer Phosphates has the pleasure to announce that Chatham Rock Phosphate Limited has signed a term sheet to purchase Korella Phosphate Mine in Australia, located in northwest Queensland and adjacent to Incitec Pivot's Phosphate Hill Mine. In 2015, an experimental mining operation at Korella collected and stockpiled over 10,000 tonnes of direct shipping phosphate from a shallow open cut.
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Pascal Michaux, Safer Phosphates Secretary General said: “We are pleased with the latest decision by Chatham Rock Phosphate to ramp up production of low-cadmium phosphates. This decision is a major milestone in the global efforts to increase the supply of low-cadmium fertilizers and decrease the accumulation of heavy metals in soils and our food.“
Korella’s phosphate is a low cadmium and low carbon footprint direct shipping phosphate suitable for the organic and regenerative farming sector. In these times of rising fertilizer prices and supply restrictions, Korella's phosphate is also seen as a lower cost source of phosphate for general agriculture and will predominantly meet the growing domestic demand in Australia for competitively priced fertilizer. In addition, exploration of the mining concession has uncovered a rare earth element (REE) resource, as well as other valuable heavy rare earth elements (HREE) such as dysprosium (Dy) and neodymium (Nd) that were linked to the yttrium resource.
The final negotiation of the arm’s length Sale and Purchase Agreement with vendor Australia Venus Resources Pty Ltd and its shareholders will now proceed subject to certain conditions. Production at Korella is expected to commence after the transfer of the lease to Chatham’s wholly owned Australian subsidiary, Avenir Makatea Pty Ltd, trading as Korella Fertilizers.